Maps represent and make governable the social relations that underlie their production. This reinforcement of existing power structures poses challenges to groups at the margins of representation (politically and visually). Refugees on their migratory routes are usually represented as simplified arrows crossing nation state borders. This article asks if refugees can “map back” against the excluding hegemony of maps to publicly (re)claim spatial representation. Especially the vehicle of the “Balkan Route Corridor” in its materialisation and its consequences is a laboratory for inquiring into these possibilities for claim making. The aim of this research has been to explore some ways in which refugees themselves could counter cartographic representations. Collaborative “countermappings” from the route can visualise the state’s essential impact on the experience of refugees, as well as offer individual responses and resistance to it. The article elaborates on how the refugee researchers and I tried to find a way to document, understand, resist, traverse and/or ridicule the traditional cartography. Results show that these mappings can to some extent allow for an active (self-) representation at the margins of representation and challenge territory-centered approaches to spatial imagination. The article also discusses the practical, methodical and interpretative limits to collaborative mapping experienced by myself and my collaborators alike.

What difference does it make if research analyses resistance in a local space, a global space, or a space in-between (Anzaldúa 2002, 2015; Bhabha 1990; Soja 1996)? This article takes up the perspective that ‘online’ activities are intertwined with ‘offline’ actions to a degree that ‘online’ and ‘offline’ become a hybrid continuum (Wilson 2006; Kluitenberg 2006) and therefore a space in-between. The article is based on a case study that analyses the resistance of the Frente en Defensa de Wirikuta (Front in Defence of Wirikuta – FDW) against Canadian mining projects in Wirikuta, Mexico via Facebook posts. It engages with the question of an extended concept of space that thinks between categories of the cyber/virtual (often thought of as local) and the physical (often conceived of as global), and how it can contribute to research on resistance. The case of the FDW illustrates how the reconceptualisation of the local and the global in an intertwined, hybrid ‘physical-cyber nexus’ that goes beyond fixed spatial categories gives access to a rethinking of how resistance is expressed by the FDW.

How can injustices and dominant power relations that obstruct citizens’ political participation be challenged? This article approaches that question through an exploration of autonomously claimed spaces – a space for civic action that has been given particular attention in social movement research and the study of resistance. It will explore how autonomous claimed spaces are created, how they shape actions within them, and how they interact with institutionalised movement spaces to challenge injustices. For this, the article looks at the reactions of neighbours in El Alto (Bolivia) to irresponsible profit-seeking practices on the local level, specifically at a conflict over the provision of public transport in district 3. This exploration highlights the importance of autonomous claimed spaces as temporary correctives to misuses of power and as starting points for mobilisation. It demonstrates how autonomous claimed spaces and a movement’s institutionalised spaces function as interdependent elements with fluid boundaries in a common struggle for social justice.